B-School Accrediting Body Retools Standards

By

Melissa Korn

April 9, 2013

Seeking to balance academic rigor with respect for individual schools' teaching and research missions, the main accrediting body for business schools voted on Monday to revamp its standards. But the changes seem to make accreditation easier, not harder, for schools to attain.

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, a 97-year-old nonprofit body that issues a seal of approval to business and accounting programs world-wide, says it needs the flexibility to support a growing group of programs from around the world. The organization currently accredits 672 business schools in 44 countries and territories, a number that has increased sharply in recent years and helped boost the organization's revenue.

Linda Livingstone,
dean of Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management and a member of the committee that created the new standards, says the most substantive change is the way the organization reframed its rules to encourage "innovation" and "engagement"—seen by some as fuzzy terms with few specifics. It has also eased the restrictions on faculty, making it easier for international schools to hire instructors who don't have Ph.Ds.

The moves have been welcomed by new programs seeking to build credibility and compete with established schools, though some worry that the credential has lost its value.

"Accreditation is a signal of quality. And if you accredit everyone, it's not a signal anymore," says one former AACSB board member and current dean at a top-tier school who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Bob Reid,
AACSB's chief accreditation officer and a former dean at James Madison University's business school, says the group now assesses schools in the context of their individual missions, rather than against a common standard. But determining whether a business school's mission is ambitious enough, or whether it fulfills that mission, is far from scientific, some deans say.

Schools gain and maintain accreditation via a peer review system, and though some deans find the required self-reflection to be useful, others say the time and resources spent on paperwork and preparing for campus visits aren't worth it.

AACSB-accredited schools comprise about 5% of all business programs world-wide, and nearly all elite institutions in the U.S., according to the group's own estimate. But Mr. Reid says he would like to capture more, especially given increasing competition from other, younger accreditation groups in Europe, including the Association of M.B.A.s and European Quality Improvement System.

AACSB brought in more than $5 million in revenue from accreditation fees in fiscal 2011, up from $4.8 million the prior year. It earned another $3.2 million in annual dues in 2011, up from $3.1 million the prior year. Increased attendance at annual conferences and seminars brings in added funds, too.

But as more programs gain accreditation, some business-school leaders say the gold standard is losing its luster.

"For many original institutions, it's not clear what the value of [accreditation] is any longer," says
Avijit Ghosh,
a former dean at University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and now senior adviser to that university's president.

Several other deans are critical privately, though no one appears ready to walk away from the process.

"The presence of accreditation doesn't differentiate you [as an elite school], but the absence of it does cause more noise and questions," says
David Thomas,
dean at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

AACSB started nearly a century ago, and founding members included the business schools at Harvard University, Columbia University and University of Texas. The group's current chairman is
Joseph A. DiAngelo,
dean at the business school at Saint Joseph's University, and its vice-chair,
Robert S. Sullivan,
heads the business school at University of California, San Diego.

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